VILNIUS FESTIVAL 2002
6th festival
31 May – 29 June, 2002

Every year, when the summer approaches, it is time for the Vilnius Festival. This was conceived and has been nurtured by a group of like-minded people, both in Lithuania and abroad, and has kept to its original aim. Just like the city whose name it bears, the festival is open to artistic diversity and innovation, at the same time as preserving old traditions.

This year, the festival offers an opera and a ballet, gospel music and jazz, international classical music, and compositions by contemporary Lithuanian composers. It will open with two of the best ever performances by the Latvian National Opera, followed by Astor Piazzolla’s tango operita, and a ballet by Mindaugas Urbaitis, which was commissioned by the festival. The I Solisti di Pavia and its leader, the cellist Enrico Dindo, together with the Flanders Recorder Quartet and Steve Dugardin, a talented vocalist with a rare voice, will both give listeners a good opportunity to appreciate the charms of chamber music. The soloist Dmitri Hvorostovsky, who has impressed audiences worldwide, from La Scala to the Metropolitan Opera, will sing with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Juozas Domarkas. The Petras Vyšniauskas Quintet, the London Community Gospel Choir and the world famous Al Jarreau will reveal the many facets of jazz.

I hope that performers and audiences alike will experience many enjoyable moments in Vilnius and at the festival, and that the festival will make a pleasant impression on everyone.

Gintautas Kėvišas,
Director of the Vilnius Festival